Opinion: Tomasino, Fabbro, Askarov Moves Had to Be Done by Predators

There is a lot of flack being thrown at the Nashville Predators for giving away another former first round pick when the team traded Philip Tomasino to the Pittsburgh Penguins for a future fourth round pick. This isn’t without warrant.

It is a bad look for an organization to give up on so many young players who turn out to be much better after leaving, but none of the players drafted were under Barry Trotz, the current general manager of the team.

Nashville traded Yaroslav Askarov to the San Jose Sharks, waived Dante Fabbro, and traded Tomasino all within this season.

From public knowledge, two of the three players either had a bad attitude about their situation (Askarov) or weren’t playing the way that needed to be played (Tomasino).

This past off-season, Brunette talked about Tomasino wanting the skill first without the work and how if the young forward didn’t change that, he didn’t know if Tomasino had a chance to play for the Predators this season.

Tomasino looked good in training camp, but only played 11 games for the Predators and recorded just one assist. Without knowing for certain, what Brunette said about Tomasino had to be discussed with Trotz as well and be a reason why he was moved for so little.

If the player wasn’t going to change after getting multiple chances, then giving him a different environment is all that Nashville could do for him. The return was very weak, but it is better than nothing at all in the end for a player that might have been also placed on waivers soon because Fedor Svechkov got the callup.

As for Askarov, that situation was loud and for everyone to see. He wanted to be in the NHL and be a starter eventually. Nashville didn’t think he was there yet and had just signed Juuse Saros to an extension as well as bringing in Scott Wedgewood as the backup.

Askarov wasn’t planning on reporting to the AHL if he didn’t make the Predators out of training camp, so he was traded before the season and didn’t make the Sharks out of training camp either. He pretty much forced himself out of Nashville because he was impatient and didn’t want to play any more games in the AHL.

Both Tomasino and Askarov proved that they weren’t a fit in Nashville, and since Trotz didn’t draft either of them, there wasn’t as much of a willingness to let it play out or look bad when it failed.

Fabbro is a bit of a different situation. While he was a solid top-4 defender at one point with the Predators, he is 26 years old and just couldn’t find it in Nashville any more. He’s thriving early in Columbus on the top pairing, the spot in the lineup he played his best hockey in Nashville as well.

Related: Philip Tomasino Trade is Bad Look for Predators

The Predators have Tanner Molendyk, Spencer Stastney, Marc Del Gaizo, and Adam Wilsby all nearly ready to make impacts in the NHL. While the defensive prospect pool isn’t that deep overall, a struggling Fabbro who had been given a lot of chances for Nashville was standing in their way for more playing time this season and in the future.

The Predators have arguably made better picks in the draft lately and Trotz does things a bit different than his predecessors. There may be a longer leash for first round draft picks moving forward, but that chapter of the Predators with Tomasino, Fabbro, and Askarov is now done.

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